As with most things, there is good and bad. Let’s be generous and start by acknowledging the good points of Convergent Space by John-Paul Cleary. It is reasonably entertaining. I allowed myself to buy into it, got fairly well hooked and … Continue reading →

Spoiler Check: Contains spoilers for Dawn, Book #1 of the Xenogenesis trilogy by Octavia Butler. Another lemming. Barely half an hour into a ten hour audiobook, I lemmed* (in other words abandoned) Adulthood Rites, the second book in Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis … Continue reading →

Spoiler Check: This post is about The Glamour by Christopher Priest and is packed to the gills with spoilers There is something hideously unsettling about Christopher Priest’s works. He has a way of getting in under the reader’s defences and wreaking havoc. … Continue reading →

Spoiler Check: I am up to Chapter 3 “Summoned to oppose” of Part Two of The Last Dark by Stephen R Donaldson There is no point pretending otherwise. I embarked on The Last Dark, the final instalment of the seemingly … Continue reading →

Spoiler Check: I have completed Inversions by Iain M Banks Inversions by the late Iain M Banks is regarded as a novel in his science fiction Culture series. But would anyone reading it as a stand-alone book recognise it as science … Continue reading →

It is fun to listen to Veronica Belmont mangle names of authors on the Sword & Laser podcast, even if she only does that for effect. Most S & L episodes include Veronica and her co-host Tom Merritt reading out, … Continue reading →

If ever again I get tempted to try another Peter F Hamilton novel, I need someone wise and avuncular to gently talk me out of it. It’s no good getting angry. I just have to remember that no matter how … Continue reading →